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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29099835">Open-Eyed</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/notcoolenoughtobehere/pseuds/notcoolenoughtobehere'>notcoolenoughtobehere</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), WandaVision (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Agh they’re so lovely, F/M, I freak out over every episode, I love Wandavision so much, Minor Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Vision is dead, Wanda’s horrible life is a main character, anyway it just reminded me that this is one of the best marvel ships ever, graveyards, wanda mourns vision</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 13:22:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>899</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29099835</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/notcoolenoughtobehere/pseuds/notcoolenoughtobehere</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He looks so <i>dead</i>.<br/>or<br/>Wanda can’t get Vision’s eyes to close.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Wanda Maximoff &amp; Pepper Potts, Wanda Maximoff/Vision</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>110</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Open-Eyed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Pepper shows Wanda the grave a few days after it happens. </p>
<p>After the second snap. After she comes back. </p>
<p>After five years. Five years. </p>
<p>But to her, Vision has only just died. </p>
<p>"Tony," Pepper says as they walk through the cemetery, her voice still numb with loss, "wanted to give Vision a human funeral. He bought a family lot - he'll be buried next to Vision." She smiles, bitter, and it doesn't reach her eyes. </p>
<p>Pepper must be suffering more than Wanda, she knows. Pepper had lost her husband, the father of her child, someone she had known for decades. In comparison, Wanda hasn't lost anything, really. </p>
<p>But it's hard to keep that in mind when she sees the headstone. It is tall and narrow, with only a little text. Simply <i>Vision</i> and two dates. </p>
<p>There's grass growing on his grave. </p>
<p>Something in her chest aches. This is so - startling. </p>
<p>It is a different thing, knowing that he was here for five years and seeing it. She can't bear to consider his body, under the earth, alone for so long, empty, empty, empty. Suddenly it is like she has all five years of mourning to make up for, and she cannot stay, standing six feet above him. </p>
<p>"Thank you," she tells Pepper, and they both stand for a moment, standing before two graves, one full and one about to be filled, crying alone. </p>
<p>-</p>
<p>Wanda swears she’s not a grave digger. </p>
<p>She leaves late at night, like a grave digger. She creeps around the graveyard, like a grave digger. She doesn’t have a shovel, so there is that, but that’s only because it won’t be necessary. </p>
<p>She can already see it. The coffin is black, sleek, long, and six feet under. For two breaths, Wanda waits.</p>
<p>She hadn’t gotten to see Pietro’s body, either. It was hard, too, to believe that he was dead. That’s why she’s here, because she always wondered how it would have changed if she had only gotten to bury him. </p>
<p>And, finally, she reaches forward with her mind, and begins lifting the coffin up.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>Wanda can't get Vision's eyes to close. </p>
<p>That's what you do, when someone dies. You close their eyes, and then it looks like they're sleeping. Then, they don't look dead. </p>
<p>When Wanda opens the coffin, Vision's eyes are open, white, and empty as an abandoned church. And he looks so
<i>dead</i>, all colorless and limp, and Wanda closes the coffin with a solid thud. His forehead is still a gaping maw of broken connections, concaving in a catastrophe of wire and silver. He doesn't look like it's been five years. Of course he doesn’t. His body doesn't decompose.</p>
<p>Wanda's shaky breath seems to echo in the air. Slowly, she lifts the coffin lid again, looking down at the corpse. </p>
<p>He is dead. </p>
<p>His eyes won't close. </p>
<p>She tries. She places her palm over his eyelids, and for a moment they dip down, but the second her hand is gone, they're open. He wouldn't have been buried open-eyed if it were possible to close them. But she still tries twice more. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. </p>
<p>Wanda steps away from the coffin. </p>
<p>It makes everything so raw. It had only been days since she held him in the forest. She's been trying to convince herself that it's been five years. But here he is, just as she left him. </p>
<p>He was alive yesterday. Or, almost yesterday.</p>
<p>There is grass. </p>
<p>Another step away. </p>
<p>"Vis?" she whispers. </p>
<p>The corpse is quiet. </p>
<p>Slowly, Wanda creeps forward. </p>
<p>His entire body is frayed into shades of black and white, like an old picture. Sleep. Sleep.</p>
<p>She places her hand on his cheek, expecting it to be frigid, but it's not that much colder than her skin. </p>
<p>"Vision," she whispers, "I'm sorry. I didn't make it in time. He still got to you. I'm so sorry." </p>
<p>Vision looks through her with his pale, opaque eyes. </p>
<p>He was going to die for the world. He was ready for that, from the beginning. But it wasn't because he wanted to die. Wanda knows he wouldn't have left her, if he didn't have to. But it was for nothing. He died for nothing - less than nothing. Wanda can't imagine how horrified he would have been if he knew that Thanos succeeded using his death. How angry it would make him that half of the world - including him - disappeared. </p>
<p>"I left you." </p>
<p>Those eyes used to be so blue - so alive. </p>
<p>"I'm staying," she says, remembering saying the same words not so long ago. "Vision, I'm staying." </p>
<p>-</p>
<p>Wanda smiles as she finishes drying the dishes. Without looking, she sends one of the plates flying to its place. She doesn't turn around until she hears the crashing noise. </p>
<p>Quickly, she spins around, and for a second she's gripped in panic as she watches the plate break over Vision's head. </p>
<p>For a moment, he pauses, folding his newspaper with one hand. Wanda looks at him, something like terror in her throat, waiting for something to happen - something is going to happen to Vision, she's sure of it. </p>
<p>"My wife and her flying saucers," Vision simply says, easy and open-eyed and alive. </p>
<p>What a strange thought. Of course he is alive. What else would he be? He was alive yesterday. Wanda shakes the strange notion out of her head. </p>
<p>"My husband," she laughs, "and his indestructible head."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I. Love. Wandavision so much.<br/>I’ve written a few works for them before but I ended up orphaning them bc they were so BAD but I couldn’t help myself.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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